YEREVAN (Yerkir)–The lower chamber of Uruguay’s parliament approved a bill on March 10–which indirectly recognizes the Armenian Genocide. The bill calls for April 24 to be "the commemoration day of Armenia’s martyred in 1915," and obligates the state owned media to "cover those events" on that day.
There is no reference to "genocide" in the wording of the bill–though parliament speeches in favor of the bill did not avoid calling the genocide–a "genocide." The resolution will become a law with the president’s signature.
In 2000–Uruguay’s Senate unanimously passed a resolution marking "April 24 a national day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide."
In 1965–the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay advanced the passage of an Armenian Genocide resolution in Uruguay’s parliament–to mark the first time a country officially recognized the genocide of Armenia’s.
At the time–the author of that resolution Senator Dr. Alberto Sid–said that the bill aimed to register Uruguay’s official position on the Armenian Genocide as a crime against humanity.
Interestingly–the world’s first April 24 demonstration also took place in Uruguay–in 1964.