IT’S WRONG TO THINK THAT RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CONCERNS ONLY ARMENIANS: CHRISTIAN DER-STEPANIAN

STRASBOURG, MAY 30, NOYAN TAPAN. Ambassador Christian Der-Stepanian,
the resident representative of the Republic of Armenia to the Council
of Europe, made a speech at the May 25 meeting of the Ministers’
delegates of the Council of Europe. The speech was dedicated to the
Armenian-Turkish relations and in some sense, it was a response to
Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan’s speech made on the second day of
the Warsaw summit where the latter accused the parliaments of the
countries having recognized the Genocide of ceding to the pressure
of Armenian lobbying. Below is Christian Der-Stepanian’s speech
(with some reductions), which was submitted to Noyan Tapan from
the Press Service of the State Commission on organization of events
dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide: “Turkey’s
Prime Minister’s words, particularly, refusal of the recognition
of the fact of the Armenian Genocide, show what way Turkey must
still pass to fulfil the mandatory affair of remembering which is
so important for democratic development of any society. Accusing of
Turkish University students, who undertook a conference concerning
the Armenian Genocide, of betrayal by Turkish Justice Minister is
the sad evidence of that. In contrary with Erdogan’s estimation
made in Warsaw, it would be wrong to think that the parliaments of
11 member countries of the Council of Europe having recognized the
Armenian Genocide did it under a pressure. They did it consciously
and dilligently, considering that such a recognition corresponds
to Europe’s idea of human rights, which is based on the respect of
peoples’ memory. And today they must feel themselves more strong in
their conviction, also taking into account the voice inside Turkey,
rising in some political and intellectual circles, which calls their
authorities to do thier duty of remembering. It will be also wrong
to think that the issue of recognition concerns only Armenians of
all over the world while it is a phenomenon of political life of the
interested states and unification of civil society’s actors aimed at
the fact that the recognition should really respond the universal
demand of justice and dignity. Today, prompted from the prospect
of opening negotiations on membership to the European Union, the
Turkey’s Prime Minister calls on to create a commission of historians,
while evidences of those within a hair’s breadth of death and foreign
observers (diplomates, representatives of humanitarian missions),
historians’ works amd comparison of demographic data (more than 2
mln Armenians living in the Ottaman Empire before the World War I,
not hardly 60 thousand in present Turkey) are already enough to
prove the fact and volume of the Genocide. We think from our side
the present and future of relations between Armenia and Turkey are
in the sphere of responsibilities of the two countries’ authorities
and are not a work for historians’ counsul. Today, in reality, it is
important not to limit oneself facing the past but just the opposite,
to discuss issues of the present and turn to future. That’s why
we think that opening of borders without preconditions will be the
first significant step for establishing bilateral relations. It will
be accompanied by establishment of a dialogue within the framework
of an intergovernmental commission to be created on that purpose:
just that commission will discuss and solve all those issues which
are still problematic among our countries.”