Leo van Doesburg

Source: ADF International On Thursday 4 February 2016, the European Parliament adopted the  Resolution on systematic mass murder by ISIS  condemning the ongoing atrocities in the Middle East as genocide. It stresses that the “so-called ‘ISIS/Da’esh’ commits genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities.” By unequivocally recognizing the systematic persecution as genocide, the European Parliament urges the international community to act to stop the killing. The resolution “urges the members of the UN Security Council to support a referral by the Security Council to the International Criminal Court in order to investigate violations committed in Iraq and Syria by the so-called ‘ISIS/Daesh’ against Christians, Yazidis and religious and ethnic minorities”. ”Determined action at the UN on this genocide is long overdue. We hope that the clear language that members from all political groups agreed upon in this resolution...

What will the EU do? Important vote tomorrow in the European Parliament   Last week, in a resolution adopted at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe the abhorrent acts perpetrated by the Islamic State in Syria were strongly condemned and characterized as genocide and Member States were called to act in order to prevent such acts.  Tomorrow, the European Parliament will vote a similar resolution and hopefully will do the same. Religious minorities in the Middle East are in serious peril. For example, a hearing that was organised last week in the European Parliament showed that Christians are one of the primary targets of ISIS and that there are serious threats to their freedom and well-being around the world. Therefore, the fight against religious persecution should become one of EUs top priorities.

On 20th April, Easter Monday, I left Romania again for an exciting new trip. This time I was to visit Armenia in preparation for the ECPM congress; Georgia to visit the Christian Democratic Movement and to learn more about the political situation and how the ECPM could play a role to promote the Christian democratic values in this country; and to visit the meeting of the Eastern European Bureau for Christian Democracy that would take place during the Annual Congress of the European Popular Party in Warsaw. This is the first report, with impressions of the trip to Armenia. Monday evening I left Timisoara and went via Vienna to Yerevan. In the airplane I noticed that in Armenia it was three hours later in Vienna and so I arrived in the middle of the night in Yerevan but not at alltired. Accommodation was arranged by an old friend of mine, Levon Bardakjian, who offered to let me stay with his family. I arrived at his place, a nice house on a hill where I had a marvelous vie...