EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION For Justice & Democracy
Avenue de la Renaissance 10
B-1000 Bruxelles
Tel/ Fax: +32 2 732 70 27/26
Website :Eafjd [1]
PRESS RELEASE
MONDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2009
CONTACT : VARTéNIE ECHO
TEL. / FAX. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 27
TURKISH ARMENIAN PROTOCOLS UNANIMOUSLY REJECTED
THE `VOTCH’ (NO) PETITION IS MET WITH BY WORLDWIDE ACCEPTANCE
The Protocols on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between
the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey, which were
initiated under Swiss mediation earlier this year, are vehemently
opposed by the Armenians worldwide.
The `Votch’ (No) petition, which is open to `all who uphold
human dignity’, was initiated by philologist Krikor Beledian,
essayist Janine Altounian, journalists Arpig Missakian and Arpi
Totoyan, historian Yves Ternon of France, Professor Mihran Dabag,
Director of the German Research Institute on Diasporas and Genocides
of Bochum University, and American professor Roger Smith, former
Chairman of the International Association of Genocides Scholars.
The petition, which is online at [4], has received
signatures from residents in nearly 30 countries and the campaign is
rapidly growing.[1] [5] The petition states that `to submit such a
unique experience as genocide to negotiations and a judgment by
governmental commissions or sub-commissions would subordinate the
truth to political maneuvers and power relations’. The document
therefore considers that `by the signing of these protocols, Armenia
marginalizes the Diaspora, and enters into the strategy of the Turkish
State to divide the Armenian people and to stigmatize and delegitimize
the Diaspora for advocating the consciousness of the Genocide’.
The text concludes that `these protocols [are] an effort of the
Turkish State to impose on the economically vulnerable Republic of
Armenia its distorted vision of history from which the Republic of
Turkey was formed and which is consubstantial with it’ and
`call[s] upon all those who uphold human dignity to express their
rejection of these agreements which endanger the integrity of the
Armenian people’.
`The Armenians worldwide welcome the `Votch’ Petition. The
Turkish Armenian protocols are blatant infringements on the memory of
the Armenian Genocide and the dignity of its victims,’ stated Hilda
Tchoboian, the chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.
`The Turkish State is attempting to make its denial policy
legitimate by embedding it in a legally binding document that would
have far-reaching consequences not only for the Republic of Armenia,
but for Armenians worldwide,’ added Tchoboian. `It is therefore
incumbent upon the Armenian Diaspora to make their position clear to
the Republic of Armenia that surrendering to Turkey’s intransigent
position would establish a profound division between the Republic of
Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora,’ concluded Tchoboian.
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[1] [6] Signers include those from Argentina, Armenia, Australia,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Dubai, Egypt, France, Germany,
Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Karabakh, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the Ukraine, the United
Arabs Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States
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Links:
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[1] /extern/url.php?u=3325&qid=898966
[2]
http://a chkhar.eafjd.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/ url.php?u=3326&qid=898966
[3] /extern/url.php?u=3327&qid=898966
[4] /extern/url.php?u=3328&qid=898966
[5] /extern/url.php?u=3330&qid=898966
[6] /extern/url.php?u=3331&qid=898966