Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Brady TD has called on the Irish Government to recognise the massacre of one and half million Armenians as an act of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government.
 
The Wicklow TD said:

“The campaign of genocidal massacre that was inflicted upon the people of Armenia was a crime against humanity. 

“And while genocides have taken place through history, being particularly associated with colonial expansion, the twentieth century experienced levels unprecedented in their span and scale.

“Six million Jews perished in the Nazi holocaust during WWII. The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed further genocidal campaigns in Cambodia, East Timor, Bosnia, and in Rwanda. 

“And even though we stand over a century after the genocide in Armenia, we have a duty and responsibility to give recognition to what took place. We need to call it for what it was.

“In conflicts across the globe, we are witnessing acts of ethnic cleansing, of violence directed at groups based on nationality, religious or political persuasion.

“The potential and the conditions for genocide are very apparent in these regions.

“As a member of the UN Security Council, Ireland has a responsibility to lead, or in this instance to at the very least follow the example of other countries, such as the United States, the European Parliament, as least 30 other nations including 16 EU member states, and recognises that the Ottoman Turkish Government committed genocide in Armenia during WWI.

“We must join with the international community in sending a message that by recognising the crimes of the past, that we are giving voice to our intent to act to prevent future genocides.”