APRIL 24 – DAY OF SOLIDARITY OF ALL ARMENIANS

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 23, 2008
Armenia

On April 24, the whole Armenian nation, both in Armenia and Diaspora,
will commemorate the victims of Genocide and show the world its
solidarity and unity in reinstating the rights of the Armenians who
fell prey to this heinous crime.

This is a sacred day for all the Armenians, a day when we forget
all kinds of small and great disagreements, when we forget our being
a pro-Government or a pro-opposition representative, as well as any
kind of social, political and religious differences and controversies,
and act as a single unity, as the descendents of the Armenian people.

The same approach is shared by the foreign guests who visit the
Tsitsernakaberd Memorial every year on April 24. They come to Armenia
to express their solidarity to the Armenian people in their struggle
for justice and reinstatement of human rights.

As a day of national mourning, April the 24th is not an appropriate
moment for reopening the old disputes and paying off the old scores.

Some people’s desire for using that day as an occasion for protesting
against the foreign tyranny (following the example of the 1988
or 1989 national-liberation struggle for Karabakh) is not only
unconceivable but also strange. The April 22 statement released
by the "Pan-National Movement Center" or, in other words, the
supporters of L. Ter-Petrosyan, explicitly expresses their intention
of changing the April 24 mourning ceremony into a struggle against
the authorities. And such intention is supported by the following
"argument": "The presidential elections and the subsequent events
separated rather than split our society.

Our society is not split. It has consolidated in an exceptional manner;
it has become demarcated."

It appears that both now and during the 1988 tragic events of Sumgayit,
our people were united in one camp "Declared as a day of commemorating
the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide since 1988, April 24
also symbolizes the start of the pan-national struggle for freedom
and justice."

It turns out from the statement that the political forces
supporting the authorities and the major part of the people who
follow them do not form part of our society. Either they have
joined the "national-liberation movement" or simply, they are not
Armenians. Moreover, the statement makes it clear that we all are not
Armenians who usually become united and consolidated on April 24;
we are rather participants of the "pan-national movement" or just,
separated people: a nation unknown to history.

It also turns out that on April 24, 15.00 p.m., the "new nation"
will go to Tsistsernakaberd not for commemorating the victims of
the Armenian Genocide, but rather, for "continuing their struggle
against the criminal administration" and "demonstrating their belief
and determination in winning".

At this point, there emerge several questions:

First: Who has given the alleged members of the "Pan-National Movement
Center" the right to act on behalf of all Armenians and introduce
themselves as some new "nation of separated people?"

Second: By virtue of what rights are the "separated people" going
to impose the ridicule of vilifying the national mourning on all
the Armenians who have a traditional approach towards April 24 and
consider the day as an occasion for consolidating the whole nation?"

Third: What about those who are Armenians but have not joined the
so-called "pan-national movement" – the group of individuals who
have declared themselves as separated people and ignore the mourning
of April 24? Do they have the right to demand the members of the
newly-formed sect to remember, at least once a year, about their
Armenian origins and join the national mourning ceremony with the words
"Armenians, unite!", a slogan they advertised so much in 1988.

April 24 is a day of commemorating all the massacred Armenians; it’s a
day of uprising and consolidation, and all those who are going to chant
their own goals of acceding to power and cast a shadow on the national
mourning ceremonies, do not have the right to be called Armenians.