President Kocharian addresses international conference on Genocide

20.04.2005 13:05

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – President Robert Kocharian addressed the
international conference “Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge,”
opened in Yerevan on Wednesday. Below is the full text of President
Kocharian’s speech.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

We pay tribute to the memory of vanished victims as we commemorate
the 90th anniversary of the tragic events. We do it with doubled pain,
since we are still bound to continue the struggle for the international
recognition of the committed crime.

The First World War aimed at global re-distribution of the world and
the big ideological controversy of the 20th century that followed
became the major obstacles to recognition of the legitimate rights
of the Armenian people. We became victims of the First World War even
though we were not the initiators of that war. And our right for memory
was sacrificed to the Cold War even though we were not its masterminds.

When the planned policy of extermination of the Armenian nation was
executed, the term “genocide” did not exist. Nor was it defined. There
were no international structures that could serve as a floor for
discussion to give a united response to that crime of genocide.

Obviously the world is changing. It took time for the world to
treat genocides as crimes against humanity with all the relevant
consequences. It took time to prevent the practice of sacrificing
fundamental humanitarian values to the geopolitical interests of
great powers and to include the moral considerations into foreign
policy making of the civilized world.

The avenue of that change was tragic for many peoples. For the Armenian
people the price of that change equals one and a half million of
human lives. Today also, the Armenian question is kept hostage to
some geopolitical interests.

Modern technologies allow watching live the military operations
unfolding in differentt parts of the world, the term “genocide”
is well defined, and numerous regional and universal international
organizations are put in place.

Countries are more determined in responding to a threat or attempt
to commit genocides. Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor, Sumgait – in
all these places once again innocent people were slaughtered. This
comes to prove that there is a need to amplify the efforts aimed at
effective suppression of the genocidal attempts.

That is exactly why the recognition and condemnation of genocides
is so crucial. Recognition bears in it a huge potential for adequate
response. Prevention of that crime is particularly important.

Condemnation of genocides committed in the past is also very
important. It first of all comes to prove that the crime has no
expiration clause, and those guilty will be bbrought to justice in
any case. It is important in terms of containment of future genocidal
intentions.

It is through recognition and condemnation that states educate their
citizens. The lessons is: the state machinery shall not become a toll
in implementation of that terrible crime. We the duty of establishing
atmosphere that would exclude any extremist divisions based on the
nationality, ethnos, and religions or along any other dividing lines,
any propaganda of hatred by one group against another.

Another important component is the future fate of a people that
has survived genocide. The Armenian people, due to genocide,
were displaces, became a refugee people and were scattered across
the globe. International recognition of the Armenian Genocide and
necessity of restoration of historic injustice were sacrificed to
the grand politics.

Most of the criminals who planned and implemented the genocide
escaped the punishment. Moreover, the remains of Taleat pasha who
was assassinated in Berlin, were returned to Turkey and buries with
honors in Istanbul. The humanity pays a tremendously high price of
forgetting such crimes.

Using this opportunity I would like to thank all those countries,
which at different levels have addressed the issue of the Armenian
Genocide and have recognized it, as well as all those individuals and
organizations that have contributed to wards that recognition. The
role of Diaspora in that regard is absolutely inestimable.

By such recognitions states also say “no” to all possible future
genocides. The number of victims of the Armenian genocide could be
incomparable higher and the fate of survivors much more severe if
not for a number of outstanding individuals, including Morgenthau,
Bruce, Nansen, Verfel, Briusov, Wegner, Lepsius, and many others who
stood by our people in those terrible days.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Republic of Armenia, as an independent state, has put its position
straight forward: recognition of the Armenian Genocide is also
important for prevention of future possible genocides. Recognition is
important for Armenian-Turkish relations, since it could give answers
to many questions that exist between our two peoples, it would allot
to look ahead.

We remember the past with pain, but without hatred. For us it is
difficult to comprehend the response of the TTurkish side, which
is represented not only by the denial of the past, but also by the
blockade of nowadays Armenia. We have come across a paradox that
still needs to be apprehended. The perpetrator, not the victim is
furious with the past.

Are confident that international recognition of the Genocide will help
Turkey to come to terms with its own past and to overcome the complex
which is inherited from generation to generation and which creates
additional complexities in the relations of our neighboring nations.

I once again welcome all of you and wish you effective work. Thank you.