A crime that needs a legal qualification. Case study on extermination of Armenians - 1915

Abstract

Through my work I aim to assert the crime of Genocide as a crime under international law and as jus cogens. The analyze is done on the case of ‘Armenian Genocide’, that after nearly one hundred years of its fulfilment is still debated if it represent a crime of genocide, or it is a crime against humanity, or even there was not an international crime but merely the incidents of the war. The perception of ‘Armenian Genocide’ in moral and historical view is in some way different from the legal analyze. As genocide is a pure legal term, though is quite important to understand if the Armenian’s case match for definition of crime of genocide to called in this way. In the first chapter I explained the issue through constructing the historical events of those days. It is essential to understand the development of the events to understand if we could qualify the case as genocide. The second chapter brings all the evidences of the case, from the witness’s testimonials, the photographical proofs and some official reports and documents that bring the light on the happened events. The third chapter deals with the legal qualification of the crime. Starting with analyzing the definition of the genocide as stated in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and further analyzing the crime against humanity according with the definition from the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court. The fourth chapter develops the idea of recognition and denial of the crime of genocide. There are explained some examples of the countries that recognize and other that in spite of all evidences keep on not recognizing or even the Turkish position of denying the facts. The last chapter asses the way in which the international responsibility could be submitted to states responsible for the international crimes of genocide and the crimes against humanity in general.