Thursday, September 25 2014

 "We conduct this meeting in a symbolically significant period between the centennial of World War I and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the two turning points in the history of humanity. The United Nations Organization was established almost seventy years ago at the end of World War II, and its mission was to form new civilizational environment and culture of preventing the repetition of the past tragic pages," President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, on 24 September. 

According to the president, 2015 bears particular significance for Armenians all over the world. On April 24 Armenians around the globe will commemorate the most tragic page of the nation's history - the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. It was an unprecedented crime aimed at eliminating the nation and depriving it of its homeland: a crime that continues to be an unhealed scar for each Armenian. The 1915 Genocide was a crime against civilization and humanity, and its inadequate condemnation paved the way for similar crimes of mass murder in the future, Serzh Sargsyan said.  "Addressing the Assembly ahead of that centennial year of the Armenian Genocide from this prominent podium, which I would call the podium of Honor and Responsibility, I declare vociferously:

Thank you Uruguay, France, and Russia!

Thank you Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden!

Thank you Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, and Cyprus!

Thank you Lebanon, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, and Vatican!

Thank you for the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide regardless of the format and language adopted. I thank the U.S.A., European Union, and all those personalities, state bodies, territorial units and organizations in numerous countries, who publicly called things by their proper names. That is indeed extremely important since denial is a phase of the crime of genocide.  For a whole century now Armenians around the globe as well as the entire progressive international community expects Turkey to demonstrate the courage and face its own history by recognizing the Armenian Genocide, thus relieving next generations of this heavy burden of the past. Alas instead, we continue to hear ambiguous and ulterior messages, in which the victim and the slaughterer are equalized, and the history is falsified," the president said in his speech.
He recalled that Armenia has never conditioned the normalization of the bilateral relations with Turkey by recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In fact, Armenia was the party that initiated such a process which culminated in the signing of the Zurich Protocols in 2009. However, those Protocols have been shelved for years now awaiting ratification in the Turkish Parliament. "Ankara declares publicly that it will ratify those Protocols only if Armenians cede Nagorno- Karabakh, the free Artsakh, to Azerbaijan.  In Armenia and Artsakh ordinary people often just retort to such preconditions: "To hell with you ratification." This vernacular phrase concentrates the age-old struggle of the entire nation, and it unequivocally explains to those who attempt to bargain the others' homeland that the motherland is sacrosanct, and they had better stay away from us with their bargain. It is in these circumstances that currently the official Yerevan is seriously considering the issue of recalling the Armenian-Turkish Protocols from the parliament," the president said.

Serzh Sargsyan urged those present to pay due attention to the tragic events in Syria and Iraq,  where the groups whose creed is hatred are targeting religious and national minorities. "Two days ago, on Independence Day of the Republic of Armenia, the Church of All Saint Martyrs in Deir-ez-Zor, Syria, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, where their remains were housed, was mined and blown up by terrorists. Such a barbarity is a criminal Godlessness in no way or shape related to any faith. The catastrophic situation in Syria and the north of Iraq continuously deteriorates, and today hundreds of thousands of peaceful people are directly imperiled. Among them are tens of thousands of Armenians of Aleppo. This is an instance of a peril to consider in the context of our joint commitments to preventing the crimes against humanity. Armenia has voiced on numerous occasions the necessity to defend the Armenian population of Syria and the Yezidi population of north-western Iraq, and we are encouraged by the unified stance of the international community in this regard.

The very essence of our organization is the preservation of world peace and security. In recent years, Armenia has consistently consolidated its peacekeeping capabilities thus preparing ourselves for a more proactive engagement in that field. Armenian peacekeepers will very soon be dispatched to the south of Lebanon within the framework of the UNIFIL mission under the auspices of the United Nations. It became possible due to close collaboration we enjoy with our Italian colleagues. I strongly believe that our servicemen will fulfill their mission with dignity and high professionalism also utilizing the extensive experience they have garnered in the last decade in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan," the Armenia president said for conclusion.