April 24 Also a Day of Awakening of Self-Consciousness for Armenians

APRIL 24 NOT ONLY DAY OF COMMEMORATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS,
BUT ALSO DAY OF AWAKENING OF ARMENIAN PEOPLE’S SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS: USD
LEADER

YEREVAN, APRIL 22. ARMINFO. April 24 is not only a day of
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide victims, but also a day of
awakening of the Armenian people’s self-consciousness. Leader of the
Union Self Determination party Paruyr Hairikyan said at a
press-conference today.

He said that in 1965 the Armenian people for the first time remembered
its rights, demanding not only to mark at the state level the Day of
genocide, but also to release the seven political prisoners and to
return the Armenian lands seized by Turkey after the Genocide. A year
later in 1966 the party Union Self Determination currently headed by
P.Hairikyan was formed which was fighting and still fights for the
rights of every citizen of the country. In connection with the
aforementioned, it is not clear to Hairikyan how can high ranking
officials state that the process of Genocide recognition must be stage
by stage – at first recognition, then condemnation, and then
compensation to the victims and only after this the return of the
territories can be in question. It must be a package solution and
everything must be returned and compensated at once, as in 1915 not
only the Armenians but also the Armenian statehood were killed,
Hairikyan thinks. Hairikyan himself is a successor of the genocide
victims, the brother of his grandfather Abraham Hairikyan was killed
by Turks in 1915.