What Is the Crime of Genocide?

What is the Crime of Genocide?

This crime is regulated under the first section titled “Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity” of the first part, which regulates “International Crimes,” of the second book titled “Special Provisions” of the Turkish Penal Code.

The word genocide is formed by combining the Greek word “genos,” meaning “race, tribe,” with the Latin word “caedere,” meaning “to kill.” The legal definition of genocide was first included in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Although Jean-Paul Sartre stated that the reality of genocide is as old as human history, the concept of the “crime of genocide” emerged in the 20th century.

Despite the international community’s assertion after the actions classified as crimes against humanity committed against the Jewish population during World War II that such actions would never be encountered again, 17 instances of genocide were witnessed between 1950 and 1990, and over one million people died in just two of these genocide events.