This year, the Armenian people will commemorate the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide during a period of pivotal, unprecedented challenges and geopolitical shifts destabilizing the viability of the homeland.
Naturally, this evolving adverse situation will have a significant impact on our perceptions of the claim, particularly the process of Genocide recognition, especially within Armenia.
Also, the understanding of Turkey-Armenia relations, or even to some extent, according to public discussions, the concept of “rapprochement,” will begin to become an important factor, due to the indirect explanations already presented from time to time. We assume that over time, public opinion for and against will also take shape, which may raise or diminish the importance of the claim on the scale of national imperatives.
The Armenian Democratic Liberal Party affirms its conviction that any possible dialogue or presumed rapprochement must first stem from a correct assessment of historical truth and facts, be guided by the authenticity of the issue and legal righteousness, and pursue mutually constructive outcomes.
Any approach to the claim without emphasizing the condition of Turkey’s responsibility, admission of guilt, and related obligations would mean the loss of years of achievements and would be doomed to ultimate failure.
Moreover, the authenticity of the Armenian Genocide remains indisputable to this day, and it would be absurd to make it the subject of discussion on a new agenda of historians, according to a strange precedent.
The vast mass of Armenians reborn from the Genocide is conscious of the loss of their historical homeland’s property, possessions, and cultural values, as well as the suffering endured by their ancestors, and therefore remains uncompromising in the full pursuit of their rights.
Turkey, to this day, continues in vain its continuous but futile state campaign of historical denial, despite the decisive and unequivocal recognition by the international community of the crime of Genocide committed against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, Turkey, as yesterday, today continues its genocidal essence and the program of Pan-Turkism, the best example of which was its direct participation in the 2020 Artsakh war.
The Armenian people worldwide, bearing the wound of the Genocide, are in no case ready to make the claim a subject of discussion, at the cost of arrangements that serve as a murky and temporary diplomatic veil.
All involved international actors must correctly understand the seriousness and determination of the claimant.
The claim, as in the past, remains today a pan-Armenian issue. Turkey, as a state, is obliged to accept its guilt as the heir of the genocide perpetrator and to provide appropriate fair reparations to the Armenian people.
In the name of:
THE CENTRAL BOARD OF THE ARMENIAN DEMOCRATIC LIBERAL PARTY
Raffi Balian | Secretary
Mike Kharapyan | Chairman
