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SÖYLEDİKLERİ VE YAZDIKLARI
same time, these must be staged without grounds permitted by
international law. ‘Persecution’ cited in Article 7 (1/h), means in
accordance with Article 7 (2/g) “the intentional and severe
deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by
reasons of the identity of the group”. Persecution consists of
‘multiple of commission’ of acts that constitute an intensive
violation of almost aft of the fundamental rights. Those who
commit that crime would be motivated by the kind of political,
racial, national, ethnic, religious, gender or other grounds not
permitted by international law.
Applying the concept of crimes against humanity as enshrined
in the Statute of Rome to the 1915- 16 Armenian incidents some
eight decades after these incidents occurred would not be
compatible with common sense, let alone the law. Still, an
examination of the issue from this standpoint would reveal the
following facts.
For the acts listed in Article 7 Paragraph (1) to constitute crimes
against humanity, these acts must be part of a widespread and
systematic attack on a given civil population. Yet, the Ottoman
security forces did not stage any such attack on the Armenians in
order to carry out their relocation. In other words, Armenians were
not subjected to the multiple commission of the specified acts that
make up the concept of “attack” as defined by law.
The Armenians were not persecuted on account of their identity
as a group on any grounds. Until World War I when a dangerous
situation arose in the eastern front for the survival of the country,
they continued to exercise their fundamental rights like everybody
else. There was no policy to deprive them of these rights prior to
their armed revolt and the relocation. During the relocation, which
necessarily constituted a derogation to a set of rights, their
fundamental rights were respected to the extent possible.
The deaths of some group members in circumstances where no
wide-spread and systematic attack was underway does not
constitute either an element or a part of such an ‘attack’. The gang
attacks on the Armenians in the course of relocation were basically
and exclusively a law and order issue.
While discussing the genocide claims earlier in this article, it was
stated that the intent to destroy did not exist. The Armenians claim
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