We are undoubtedly at a turning point in the modern history of the Armenian people, called upon to give value to our people’s unified struggle for the pursuit of our rights.
There is no alternative any longer; the Armenian people must carry forward their existential struggle with united forces and demand their complete victory, or else renounce their existence as a distinct nation under the sun.
Today, the re-independent Republic of Armenia, which must always remain the bearer of the Armenian Cause, it is time that it strive and cooperate, working together on the path of the Armenian people’s “Great Dream” to nationalize the pursuit of the Armenian Cause and a new strategic mindset and approach with forward-looking preparation.
The overwhelming majority of the Armenian people lives outside the territory of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh; it represents great potential not only in economic terms, but in moral rather than material terms.
The Armenian people expressed its collective and especially its national-state uprising and will at the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, which were able to attract the attention of the international community and create sympathy toward the Armenian people’s imprescriptible Cause.
The focal point of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide became the just claim of the Armenian Cause. Naturally, the recognition of the Genocide must continue with renewed determination, and it is time that in the work of pursuing our national Cause the emphasis be placed on reparations for the Genocide, undoubtedly, whose address and target must become the perpetrator of the genocide, and within that framework, making the international community a participant.
In the United States, the efforts expended after the fiftieth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide at the state level, and especially after the centennial of the Genocide, 49 states by official state decision recognized the Genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people as a crime against humanity, joining the 31 member countries of the UN, the first of which was Uruguay in 1965.
The resolution regarding the Armenian Genocide placed on the agenda of the United States House of Representatives could not be ratified on numerous occasions, but with enduring and complete success it recorded a historic victory in October 2019, when House Resolution 296 was ratified receiving 405 votes, as an overwhelming majority. And December 12, 2019 must be considered an important date for the pursuit of the just Cause of the Armenian people in the 21st century; the United States Senate, with all its 100 members, ratified Resolution 150 regarding the Armenian Genocide, recognizing what happened as a crime against humanity, joining the decision taken by the same body in 1916 against the Ottoman Empire, in the days of the 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.
The year 2020 must not become an ordinary year in the modern history of the Armenian people. That year must be given value through such initiatives and especially accomplishments that will not only leave a lasting mark within our collective life, but also give new impetus to our people’s struggle for the pursuit of our rights.
The Armenian people’s struggle for the pursuit of our rights must also be transferred, in a phased and studied manner, to Turkey.
As a consequence of the Genocide, the inventorying of national and church properties, as well as individual properties and assets, must be carried out with a pan-Armenian standard and a professional approach.
The year 2020 marks the centennial of the struggle for the pursuit of our rights.
One of the most brilliant pages of the Armenian people’s liberation struggle of the 20th century is the Third Uprising of Chork Marzban, on July 22-23 (1920), which was followed by Cilicia’s one-day independence on August 4-5 (1920), under the leadership of the Armenian people’s incomparable hero, Mihran Damadian. Moreover, on August 10 of the same year, a historic treaty was signed in Sevres, on the basis of which the President of the United States, Wilson, proposed as an arbitral award the four provinces of Western Armenia to be annexed to the Republic of Armenia.
Today, 100 years later, it is the duty and obligation of the surviving and claimant generation to immediately undertake the return of the ancestral land allotted to us, which forms part of the recent past, to its rightful owner. At this important juncture of the 21st century, the Armenian people must present itself unanimously, with one stance and one claim, constituting the source of our strength as a vision and commitment to our claim. The pan-Armenian character and scope must be made important, bringing under the spotlight the common phenomena of Armenia and the diaspora, emphasizing them, as well as harmonizing and integrating them, in order to strengthen them as one complete system.
In other words, as the rightful owner and claimant of our just Cause, we must make our demand heard collectively by the international community, for which it is necessary to use properly and quietly all effective modern informational and communication means.
It is time to become aware of our collective obligations.
The claim for the just Cause and reparations of a creative people must be kept burning bright at this important centennial juncture, for that people knew how to survive, to have an independent statehood, and now it shall continue to remain the CLAIMANT of the rights allotted to it, until the realization of the Armenian people’s “Great Dream”.
Ara Aharonian
