BY REPLACING "GENOCIDE" TERM WITH ONE MOST ACCEPTABLE TO TURKS, RAFFI
HOVANNISIAN RUINED OUR DECADES’ WORK, CHAIRMAN OF ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF
SLOVAKIA CLAIMS

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. "Armenians Today" electronic
newspaper received the chairman of the Armenian community of Slovakia
Ashot Grigorian’s open letter to "Zharangutyun" ("Heritage") party in
connection with the information "Refutation" spread by the party. The
open letter sent to various addresses in particular reads:

"Dear partners of the press center of "Heritage" party.

I consider the letter "Refutation", which I received today, as quite
strange. In this letter you present comments on the phrase "Great Home
Deprivation" or "Great Displacement" used in the congratulatory message
of the respected Raffi Hovannisian to the president of Turkey: in my
opinion, by doing so you have provided a disservice to your political
figure.

When hearing comments of "Haylur" on this issue, I cherished a hope
that the son of the much respected historian, an exceptional expert on
genocide issues Richard Hovannisian has not done such an absurd step
and I impatiently expected a new comment. No doubt, Raffi Hovannisian
should have been well aware of the political value of the term
"genocide", whose importance is hard to overestimate today. Turkey is
ready to pay dearly if the Armenians agree to replace the term
"genocide" with any other word. We have had quite serious conversations
on this subject with the Turkish ambassador to the Slovak Republic Tuno
Ugdul in recent months. He has two problems, for solution of which he
would stop at nothing: to remove the khachkar we placed in downtown
Bratislava (with the help of Nig-Aparan compatriot union) and to
replace the term "genocide" with any other term. And then, all of a
sudden, your report came: yes, in his letter Hovannisian replaced
voluntarily the term "genocide" with another term more acceptable to
Turks, thus ruining the work we have done for years and decades. This
calls into question today the result of the huge and hard work on
passing the resolution on the genocide in the National Council of
Slovakia. The resolutions passed by the parliaments of about twenty
countries have also been deprived of meaning. Yes, all this is called
into question, if we so easily reject the term "genocide". And this is
taking place against the background of the recent statement of
"Heritage" to back the Armenian National Movement (ANM) party. I have
to state with regret that I no longer want to have the honor to be your
friend and I ask you not to take trouble to inform me from your
information source any more. I think that by cooperating with
Ter-Petrosian, who has become blind from his aggressiveness, you stop
serving our people and in case of being frank, it is only you who can
tell us what real goals you have and what masters you serve in reality.
I would not be surprised if in the near future we heard your and ANM
gangsters’ other proposals to put the country at the disposal of Turks.
Believe me that we who live far from Armenia take hard and cannot
understand such acts of our country’s treachery and we are perplexed at
your frenzy to stab in the back of our long-suffering people".