Between April 19-21 2017 our University, in cooperation with the Kurdish Salahaddin University hosted the First International Conference on Nations under Genocide.

The lecturers of the conference, internationally renowned experts of the subject, have given a glimpse into the notion of genocide, its legal background, history and the sufferings of certain peoples and have shown us why the topic cannot lose its actuality. State-of-the-art weapon technologies still end up in hands that will readily use them to destroy entire groups of people, communities of Christian and other denominations.

It still remains a burning question in many parts of the world. For example in the very same area where Armenians fell victim to genocide during World War I, a silent war is taking its toll on Kurdish and Turkish lives alike. About half a million Syrian Christian refugees are now living in Erbil, the Kurdish capital, and surrounding areas, who have been forced to flee from their ancestral lands in the face of the terrorists of the fundamentalist Islamic State. The war in its cruelty does not spare neither women nor children, and we witness the sufferings of the displaced and persecuted civilians with our own eyes on a daily basis.

The lecturers of the conference held presentations on Jewish, Kurdish, Stalinist, Armenian, Gypsy and Eastern Christian genocide, which were followed by debate and exchange of thoughts in separate section panels.
Having successfully concluded the event we have learned more about the risk factors, warning signs, and triggering events that have led to genocides in the past, thus we gained a better understanding and a sobering reminder that preventing future genocides and mass atrocities remains an enormous challenge.

,,It is an extraordinary honor for the Pázmány Péter Catholic University to welcome you to The First International Conference on Nations under Genocide. It is an inspiring prominent moment when we can be together; those who carry different wounds of the body of our nations, of our peoples, of our Families and of our various Faiths. These irreparable tragedies cannot be forgotten, because these are living memory and belong essentially to our own history, even to the daily life of many of you, still now. Unfortunately, we are in an epoch of the history of human being when many times harms, massacres, persecutions, and other forms against nations and faith happen".

Dr. Szabolcs Szuromi, President of PPCU in his welcoming speech

The whole text may be found here.