10.04.2019
On 10 April, the lower house of Italian Parliament approved a motion calling on the Italian government “to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide and raise the profile of this issue on an international level.”

The motion was approved with 382 votes in favor, none against and 43 abstentions.

The resolution reads: “Recognizing and commemorating the cruelties and atrocities committed in the 20th century must be a constant warning”.

The text of the document makes reference to 1973 decision of the UN Human Rights Commission to recognize as genocide the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1917, as well as a similar decision backed by the European Parliament in 2015 calling on all its member states to acknowledge the genocide, as well as cites Pope Francis’ description of the Armenian Genocide as “the first genocide of the 20th century”.

Recall that many bodies of Italian local authorities have already recognized the Armenian Genocide.