Is Pure Recognition of Genocide Enough?

• 03.12.2016, 12:42
•  Near East,  World

In the 21^st century there are still places in the world where people are killed because of their nationality and religion. Although  there are hundreds of articles published in  media that demand from the world countries, international, human rights organizations not to be indifferent, very few of those articles specify what they mean by not being indifferent. Does, being not indifferent, just mean making an announcement or passing a resolution. If it is so, then in the case of what is going on in the Middle East, the world seems not to be indifferent - the European Parliament, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom etc have recognized the massacres of the people in the Middle East as genocide. Is it enough? Certainly not: people continue to be brutally killed in the region.

According to the UN data at least 18,802 civilians were killed and 36,245 others were wounded between January 2014 and October 2015. 3.2 million people were forced to flee their homes, among them about 1 million school-age children. Even in Turkey, which is a NATO member and negotiates to become a member of the European Union, Kurdish women and children are brutally killed by the official forces under the pretext of the struggle against terrorism. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation reports that between August and January, 162 civilians have been killed, among them also women and children.

So what should be done to stop these massacres? The resolution passed by the European Parliament calls ՞those intentionally responsible for committing atrocities against ethnic or religious minorities should be brought before criminal courts for violations against international law and crimes against humanity՞.  In the resolution it is particularly noted ՞whereas genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, wherever and whenever they happen, must not go unpunished, and whereas their effective prosecution must be ensured by taking measures at national level, by enhancing international cooperation and through the International Criminal Court and international criminal justice.՞  Although thիս resolution clearly indicated the perpetrator and the need to punish it, there lots of other resolutions referring to the crimes against humanity, which does not imply any actions, punishment and compensation. They are just words written on papers. Perhaps this is the reason why after 100 years we still witness how Kurdish children are brutally killed in front of their parents in Turkey, while Turkish officials with smiles on their faces exchange migrants with the Europeans.