MINISTER OSKANIAN SPEAKS ON GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE IN BRUSSELS

ArmRadio.am
27.04.2007 10:27

RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian participated in a commemorative
evening in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

The event was attended by representatives of the Belgian Parliament,
EU senior officials, Ambassadors accredited in Belgium, the European
Union and NATO, Armenian and Jewish organizations of Europe, musicians
and journalists.

Press and Information Department of RA MFA informs that the opening
speech was delivered by the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee of Belgium Roelants du Vivier. The Senator, who is one
of the initiators of the resolutions on recognition of the Armenian
Genocide in the European Parliament in 1987 and the Belgian Senate
in 1998, noted that the depiction of the massacres in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915 fully corresponds to the Convention on the punishment
of genocide the UN adopted in 1948. He also underlined that 92 years
after the events there are still people, a government and a state
that refuses to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Senator Roelants du
Vivier assured that he and his supporters are fighting against those
who threaten the public order of Belgium by denying the genocide. "We
are obliged to do that in memory of 1.5 million Armenians and survivors
who chose Belgium as their new motherland," said the Senator.

Turning to the attempts of Turkey to distort own history, Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian noted that for a long time we memorialized
these events by ourselves. "We were left alone because there
were two versions of history – the official and the alleged,
the acknowledged and the denied. The Ottoman Empire that fell
was succeeded by a Republic with an immaculate, almost divine,
self-image. Such murderous acts and their tolerance could not fit
within this self-definition. Minister Oskanian welcomed the speech
of those Turkish intellectual who said: "I’m neither guilty nor
responsible for what was done 90 years ago. But I feel responsible
for what can be done now."

Turning to Turkey’s policy of denial, the Minister said: "I believe
that we must distinguish between the Ottoman Empire and today’s
government of Turkey. But I must say that although that is possible
to do when speaking of the events of 1915, it becomes increasingly
difficult to do when speaking about the denial of the Turkish state
today. As Elie Wiesel said, the denial of genocide is the continuation
of genocide.

At the end of his speech Vartan Oskanian turned to future of
Armenian-Turkish relations and regional cooperation. "Today, as
the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia, as the grandson
of genocide survivors, I can only say that Armenia and Turkey are
neighbors who will remain neighbors. We share a border. We can only
move forward together."