ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: GENOCIDE HAS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATION AND THOSE GUILTY IN IT WILL BE PUNISHED

YEREVAN, APRIL 20. ARMINFO. Genocide has no statute of limitation
and those guilty in it will be punished. Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan made this statement an a two-day international conference
“Genocide and Human Rights” opened in Yerevan today. The event is
dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman
Turkey in 1915.

In his speech, President Kocharyan notes that marking the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide “we pay homage to the innocent
victims of that crime.” Armenia does it with pain as the fight for
international recognition of Genocide is still continued. The World
War I with its goals of dividing the world and the hard confrontation
of ideologies it resulted in have become the main obstacles in the
way to recognition of the Armenian people’s rights. These rights were
first to fall victim to the Cold War, although it was not Armenia that
had started it. When the program of extermination of Armenians was
implemented, humanity was not aware of the world “genocide.” There were
no international structures which could become an area for discussions
of how to counteract the genocide. The world has changed since then and
it took long time the international community to regard genocide as a
crime against humanity with all the consequences proceeding. It also
took super powers time not to sacrifice the basic humanitarian values
for their geopolitical interests and morality became a slogan of the
foreign policy of the civilized world. The way passed to understand
the aforementioned was tragic for many peoples. The cost of that way
for Armenians is 1.5 million human lives. Today it is already clear
that the Armenian Cause is released from the position of a hostage of
geopolitical interests step by step. The existence of the Republic
of Armenia is the best guarantee for Armenia’s success in further
protection of its rights, Robert Kocharyan says.

To note, participating in the conference were also Prime Minister
of Armenia Andranik Margaryan, All Armenian Catholicos His Hollines
Karekin II, Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan and Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan, as well as some 50 first-rate native and international
experts for genocide study from 20 countries. Foreign Minister Oskanyan
delivered a welcoming speech to the conference participants.