November 24, 1997
COMUNE DI MILANO
CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF NOVEMBER 24, 1997
MOTION PROPOSED BY COUNCILLOR MASSIMO DE CAROLIS AND OTHERS
GENOCIDE OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE
The meeting is presided over by Massimo De Carolis President of the City Council.
40 Councillors are present.
The City Council of Milan
remembering
that 1998 is the 83rd anniversary of the beginning of the extermination against the Armenian people committed by the Turkish soldiers and that this crime, which was perpetrated until 1922 and killed one and a half million people, has been recognized as "genocide" by the ONU Subcommittee for the Human Rights in 1985 and 1986 and by the European Parliament in 1987;
considering
that the genocide is the cruelest and most inhuman crime as it aims at destroying a whole people, its culture and its history;
considering
that the acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide may help to solve many other tensions presently occurring in the Caucasian area;
affirming
that Turkey, to be able to become a member of the European Union, will have to assume the full responsibility for this genocide that the acknowledgement of this crime is to the benefit of the Turkish people that will finally free itself of an unbearable moral responsibility;
recognizes
the need for the public opinion from all over the world to step forward in favour of the Armenian people as it did for the Jewish Holocaust;
asks
to the Italian Government to acknowledge the genocide of the Armenian people according to the resolutions issued by ONU, the European Parliament, by the Congress of the United States of America and by many other countries in the world;
expresses
its complete solidarity towards the Armenian people and its fight for the acknowledgement of the historical truth and the defense of its inviolable rights.
[SIGNED]
The Councillors of the City Council of Milano