At the close of the conference entitled AFTER GENOCIDE: FROM TRAUMA TO REBIRTH: A GENDERED PERSPECTIVE held in Yerevan on September 16- 17-18-19th
2016 and organised by Women in War, in partnership with the Institute of Archaeology and
Ethnography in Yerevan and AGBU (Armenian General Benevolent Union) and DVV International (Yerevan), the international participants and organizers passed the following resolution:

After lengthy discussions about the grave, long-term transgenerational consequences of all acts of genocide and mass violence, we the undersigned, international scholars, academics, activists, lawyers, writers, artists, all recognized specialists in our respective fields, condemn all attempts of eradication of an entire ethnic and or religious group by another, through violence, persecution, repression and censorship.

In particular, we condemn the ongoing policy of systematic violence against the Kurdish population organized and enacted by the present Turkish government under the leadership of its president Recep Erdogan, be it against Turkish citizens of Kurdish descent or Kurds living in Western Kurdistan, in the area known as Rojava.

We equally condemn the persecution of all Turkish citizens whatever their origin who have expressed their opposition to their governement’s anti-democratic and repressive policies that, in our opinion, tragically echoes those which led to the genocide of the Armenians in Turkey in 1915.

We unanimously condemn what amounts to genocide against religious minorities in the Middle-East, especially the Yazidis and Christian and the attacks against Shia communities by Daesh/ISIL, an organization which has been covertly supported by Turkey.

Lastly we deplore the dangerous passivity of Western governments and institutions, including the UN and the EU in front of the systemic violence of Turkish policies, which once again, for academics, thinkers, students present in this conference, is reminiscent of a comparable blindness in the 1930s in front of the rise of Nazism. Whatever is allowed to happen in present day Turkey and Rojava, far from being a localized and limited situation, will have fatal consequences for world peace and human rights, especially those of women. The rise of ultra-nationalist far-right parties all over Europe is already an ominous symptom

History must not be allowed repeat itself, especially with the even more dangerous technological means at the disposal of belligerents today. No government should be granted impunity for the crimes it has committed.

Kay Andrews (UCL), UK
Ruth Amir (Yezreel Valley College) Israel
Lara Aharonian (Director of Women’s Resource Centre, Yerevan)
Annie Benveniste (University of Paris 8) France
Domitille Blanco (University of St Etienne) France
Karen Boswall (University of Sussex) UK
Meral Cicek, (REPAK), KRG
Catherine Coquio, (University Paris 7) France
Anais Garcia (University of Toulouse) France
Jo-Ann Di Giorgio Lutz (A&M University of Galveston Texas) USA
Anna Koch (University of York) UK
Alphonse Maindo (University of Kisangani) R.D.Congo
Beata Mairesse Umubyeyi, Rwanda-France
Martha C Galan Mandujano, Potosi, Mexico
Carol Mann (Women in War, University of Paris 8) France
Harutun Marutyan (Armenian National Academy of Sciences in Yerevan)
Nhu-Mai Nguyen (VAVA), Paris France
Dalia Ofer (Hebrew University), Jerusalem, Israel
Margaret Owen (Widows for Peace) UK
Andreas Pfeiffer, artist, Paris France
Karolina Ristova-Asterud (University of SS Cyril and Methodius), Skopje, Macedonia
Laurence Ritter (EHESS), Paris France
Lusine Saghumyan (Yerevan) Armenia
Nona Shahnazarian (Armenian National Academy of Sciences in Yerevan)
Max Sivaslian, photographer Yerevan) Armenia
Samah Saleh (An Najah University) Nablus, Palestine
Dimitirie Sissi Mukanyiligira, Rwanda
Yeghia Tashjian (Haigazian University, Beyrouth) Lebanon
Mari Toivanen (University of Turku) Finland
Dana E. Walrath, artist, USA
Astrid Vartanian, designer Paris France