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WHAT DOES "GENOCIDE” MEAN?
This term refers to a well
defined crime, the definition of which has been given in an
international convention made after the Second World War:
the "Convention of Prevention and Repression of Crime
of Genocide", approved by the General Assembly of the
United Nations in its resolution of December 9, 1948 and which
went into effect on January 11, 1951, convention Turkey has
signed and ratified this agreement.
In the convention the definition
of the crime of genocide consists of three elements: for one
thing, there has to be a national, ethnic, racial or religious
group. Then, this group has to be subjected to certain acts
listed in the convention: the "murder of the members
of the group, and forced transfer of the children of one group
into another group and subjecting the members of a group to
conditions which -will eventually bring about their physical
destruction". But the third element is the most important:
there has to be "an intention of destroying", in
part or as a whole the said group. This key-description helps
to differentiate between genocide and other forms of homicide,
which are the consequences of other motives such as in the
case of wars, uprisings etc. Homicide becomes genocide when
the latent or apparent intention of physical destruction is
directed at members of any national, ethnic, racial or religious
groups simply because they happen to be members of that group.
The concept of numbers only becomes significant when it can
be taken as a sign of such an intention against the group.
That is why, as Sartre said in speaking of genocide on the
occasion of the Russell Tribunal on the Vietnam War, that
one must study the facts objectively in order to prove if
this intention exists, even in an implicit manner.
(23) Prof. SOYSAL, Mumtaz,
The Orly Trial, 19 February - 2 March 1985, Statement and
Evidence Presented at the Trial,
Ankara University, Faculty
of Political Sciences, 1985
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