SERZH SARGSYAN ADDRESSES ARMENIANS ON THE DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ArmenPress
April 24 2009
Armenia

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
addressed Armenians on the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the
Armenian Genocide. The address of the president runs as follows:
"Dear Compatriots, Today we bow to the memory of the innocent victims
of the Armenian Genocide.

Ninety-four years ago, in the Ottoman Turkey took place the
state-designed and state-executed Armenian Genocide. A great number of
our people were cold-bloodedly annihilated. Today, for the survivors
of the Genocide, their descendants, and all Armenians the Genocide
is not only past reality but an indivisible part of our present and
our destiny.

Crimes against humanity do not have expiration date neither in the
memories of the people nor for history trial. For the Republic of
Armenia and the Armenian people the international recognition and
condemnation of the Armenian Genocide is a matter of reinstating
historic justice.

The Armenian people are not alone in their condemnation of the
Genocide. At this time of remembrance we express our heartfelt
gratitude to the states, organizations and individuals who support us
in our quest for condemnation and prevention of this crime against
humanity. We support those Turkish intellectuals who struggle for
historic justice, who share our pain. We have said numerous times that
the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not directed
against the Turkish people and recognition of the Genocide by Turkey
is not a precondition for the establishment of bilateral relations.

At the time the lessons of the Armenian Genocide were ignored. During
the last decades sophisticated mechanisms against the Genocide denial
and denunciation of the recognition process have been developed. To
deny Genocide means to through into oblivion this crime against
humanity and to pave the way for new similarly ferocious crimes. Today,
when the world faces new instances of hatred, nationalism, and
intolerance, a united and unanimous response of the human kind to the
crimes against humanity becomes of crucial importance. As President
of the Republic of Armenia, I wish no other nation ever goes through
that tragedy again.

Dear Compatriots, Every one of our innocent victims has a name,
family and story. The committed crime has concrete culprits – those
who planned it and those who executed. Many of those tragic stories
have not been told yet. Even though a huge amount of work has been
conducted, the world is yet to see abundant evidence testifying to
the fact of the Armenian Genocide, testimonies, and documented facts.

Centuries-long Armenian history has many heroic pages, pages of losses
and pages of creation. Today, when we are building our new statehood,
when we shape new biography of our freedom we prove that we ourselves
can be the guarantors of our security and eliminate any possibility
of the repetition of similar crimes in the future."