The President of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian, issued a message on the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which is presented below:
“Dear compatriots in Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora,
This year, the anniversary of the victims of the Armenian Genocide will pass with the protocols imposed by the pandemic. However, our tribute to the memory of our holy martyrs has never been measured only by visits to the Genocide Memorial or other Armenian Genocide monuments:
We remember our victims always and everywhere, wherever we may be in the world, and we pray for them in our souls and minds, name by name. Memory and the pain of loss, interwoven with our will to live and to achieve the victory of justice, have accompanied us for 105 years already.
Yes, more than a century has passed since the Armenian Genocide, the dispossession and destitution of the Armenian people. Yet the entire Armenian people still awaits the victory of truth and the establishment of justice.
Historians and analysts, statesmen and political figures of the time, consider the absolute disregard for the rights of the Armenian people to be one of the greatest injustices of the world order established after the First World War.
The loss of 1.5 million human lives has substantially affected the subsequent reproduction of the Armenian people; today we should have been not 10-12 million, but at least twice that number.
The question of recognition of the Genocide, which Armenians raise before the international community and Turkey, has several components: the duty of memory, the exclusion and condemnation of the repetition of such a crime, and the elimination of the consequences of the Genocide.
It is unacceptable to view the question of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide from the perspective of momentary economic or political interests with Ankara.
With such an approach, the world would not move forward. We cannot, on the one hand, declare our joint struggle against misanthropy, discrimination, intolerance, antisemitism, denialism and other universal evils, and on the other hand, “play diplomacy” with Turkey on the Armenian Genocide issue.
Many states that have great interests with Turkey have overcome that obstacle, and they must be given their due.
We are grateful to them, as well as to those countries that, after the Genocide, opened their doors and gave shelter to those saved from that catastrophe.
We are grateful to humanitarian organisations, missionaries, diplomats, and those peoples and individuals who extended a helping hand in those cruel days and saved many.
The position of Turkey’s successive governments, which have avoided and continue to avoid recognition of the Genocide and at the state level pursue a policy of denial, is unacceptable.
The crime of genocide has no statute of limitations. The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey and the elimination of its consequences are a guarantee of security for Armenia and the Armenian people, as well as for the region.
We cannot forget the Armenian Genocide and we cannot reconcile with its consequences.
Dear compatriots,
Today, besides the painful memory, we must also speak of the resilience of spirit and heroism that our people displayed during those years.
The Genocide is also a story of the Armenian people’s survival and struggle, a story of the fight of the human spirit and will. It was a struggle for life. A struggle for the preservation of identity, a struggle for the right and the possibility not to lose the nation’s memory and to pass it on to generations.
The Genocide is also a story of everyday human heroism, when living and surviving was already a struggle. We struggled, we endured and we became heroes.
We were able to defeat death; we survived and were reborn. The existence of today’s independent Armenia, free Artsakh, as well as an organised and successful Diaspora, are proof of this and a new opportunity for us.
An opportunity to unite as a nation and a people, to bring together our efforts and capabilities, and to achieve the realisation of our national aspirations.
I believe in this.
I remember and I demand.
God protect the Armenian people.”
